


Genesis

by projectoverlord



Series: Genesis [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: And a dash of SHIELD Husbands, Dysfunctional Family, Families of Choice, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Numerous Ideas about what the Avengers would Swim In, Pool Party, because i can't help myself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:51:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1478695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/projectoverlord/pseuds/projectoverlord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers have a pool party.</p><p>This story contains no spoilers for the latest Marvel films.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Genesis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> For a good friend. Who had some interesting ideas about what the Avengers would wear swimming. Hello, love! I hope you enjoy.
> 
> (For pictures of Natasha and Steve's swimsuits, check the end notes. It's a good day when I get to research swimming attire.)

The pool on the 27th floor of the Tower gets a lot of use.

Steve is up at the rising of the sun every morning, swimming laps that he doesn't need, while Jarvis counts down from a hundred patiently.

Clint and Natasha, slightly later in the morning, swim lazy laps that aren't counted. Mostly because Clint spends about two minutes in the pool before he gets bored and wanders off to fiddle with whatever latest tech Tony has handed to him. Natasha, meanwhile, swims dutifully.

Thor, Bruce and Coulson sporadically visit. Once in a while.

Tony...well...it's entirely possible Tony doesn't actually _know_ there's a pool in the tower.

-

This, however, is the first time the pool on the 27th floor has ever been used by all of them.

The assembly had begun at Clint's behest. Natasha had merely rolled her eyes. And made a gentle allusion to the idea having something to do with getting Coulson in a bathing suit. Which Clint had staunchly denied. Because it wasn't about that.

...Okay, it isn't entirely about that.

That, of course, had led to Clint and Natasha arriving at the pool first. Clint's message had been short but insistent as to the necessity of attendance.

Natasha slipped out of the thin dress covering her swimsuit, exposing the straps of black beneath. Clint whistles, and she shoots him a look. They both know he's the only one who could get away with it and keep his tongue.

Steve comes through the doors already dressed in his bathing suit. Clint does a double take, then stifles a burst of laughter. "Steve, man, I know you're from the 40's but...what are you wearing?"

Even Natasha has one eyebrow cocked in amusement. Steve's knee-length striped suit is straight out of a black and white photograph taken 70 years ago. He tugs at one sleeve idly and his skin takes on a delightful flush. The red only deepens as he catches sight of the expanse of skin left on display by Natasha's bathers.

"I, ah...Phil gifted them to me. He thought it might make me more comfortable."

Clint drops his trousers and grins as they take in the bullseye on his tiny budgie smugglers. Steve scratches his head and then averts his eyes without comment.

Thor and Bruce arrive together. Bruce is in a pair of plain purple boardshorts - Tony's hilarious idea - and a black shirt. He pats Steve on the back in a gentle greeting, and smiles at the other two. When he sees the bullseye he just smirks.

Strangely, Thor is wearing ordinary clothes. He heartily, and loudly, greets everyone individually. When he slaps Steve on the shoulder, it makes the supersoldier stumble forward a step.

Tony's voice echoes unintelligibly in the hallway, coming closer as he speaks. When he enters, he stops and frowns. "We have a pool? Guys, why did nobody tell me we have a pool! Jarvis, why didn't you tell me about this?"

"My apologies, sir," the AI tells him, "but given that you had designed the tower, I assumed you knew."

"Watch it with your tone, mister," Tony jests, rubbing his arc reactor and grinning. He's in a pair of ghastly Avengers memorabilia shorts. The fabric is absolutely covered in cartoonish drawings of the team, ranging from horribly accurate (Hulk) to horribly inaccurate (Black Widow.) Thor thinks they're excellent, of course, and expresses his desire for a pair of his own. To which Tony is most obliging.

Coulson walks in wearing a suit. An honest-to-god two-piece black suit. Just like always. The look of disappointment on Clint's face is rather obvious, but it's Tony who says, "C'mon Agent, surely you own clothes that are not suits."

"Nothing I can swim in," Phil says sheepishly.

"Oh, I have just the thing," Tony replies, a grin on his face that Phil finds terrifying. He is promptly dragged from the room by the still-grinning genius.

Natasha shrugs and dives in with the grace of an angel. Bruce slides in with rather less skill, and Clint does a bomb dive that splashes Steve from head to toe. The blonde frowns, but he quickly dives in and surfaces. Shaking out his mane, he gives Clint a look that suggests payback is not far away.

They're promptly distracted by Thor, who, having already shed his shirt, now drops trou and stands in all his naked Asgardian glory before them.

"Ah!" Clint says, shielding his eyes.

Steve takes on a shade that can only be called lipstick red. Bruce doesn't even flinch. Natasha's eyebrow arches, but she bears the hint of humour in her expression.

Tony walks in with Coulson, sees Thor's bare ass, and makes a noise of abject horror. "Thor, pants! Pants, man!"

"Nonsense! I need no pants!" Taking a running leap, he copies Clint's bomb dive with far more grace - and flying naked ass.

"Does that mean I can take my pants off too?" Tony questions.

" _No_!" comes the resounding response.

At that moment, Clint's eyes move to Coulson. The agent is doing his best to use Stark as cover. His attempts are primarily unsuccessful. Clad in only shorts, he looks in sharp contrast to his usual full suit. But that is not what draws the eyes of the Avengers to him.

It's the Captain America shorts he's wearing.

They're painfully bright. The familiar red, blue and white pattern is blazoned across him so blatantly it almost feels like blasphemy in the same room as the Captain himself. Coulson is turning scarlet. Bruce is the first one to take pity on him - or at least the first one to regain the use of his primary functions - and calls to Jarvis for some music.

"Of course, Doctor Banner," Jarvis replies, and they are blessed with some gentle music to break the awkward silence.

Thor breaks into conversation with Natasha, Steve and Bruce over their latest mission. Clint glances fleetingly at Coulson, but his thoughts are interrupted by Stark's approach. "So, Robin Hood, what do you think about the new arrow prototype?"

It's a little astounding, Coulson thinks as he watches them, that the Avengers became more than just a team. They live in the same tower, go on the same missions, but they're still so vastly different. Yet here they are. In ways they have all changed in the presence of their team. Thor has lost much of his god-like brazen demeanour. Bruce's instinct to flee has been hushed, his fear of hurting those close to him quietened. Natasha, always fiercely independent, has learned that strength does not mean being alone. Tony, well...perhaps Tony hasn't changed all that much. But they have learned better how to understand him, and the subtleties of his disposition. And maybe there is a little less roughness around the edges. Maybe - not that Tony would ever admit it - the emptiness left by his lack of family has been filled.

And then there is Clint. Perhaps it is that Coulson has known him for so long, and so well, but it seems that Clint of all of them has changed the most. Before the Avengers, before all of this, Clint was an archer who hid his problems behind humour. In the presence of his newfound friends, though, he has developed beyond his skills and his issues. In a way, his humanity has been revealed by the Avengers.

In a way, they have all been humanised.

As for Coulson himself...he likes to think that he is a part of this haphazard family. And he knows that without them, he might not be who he is now. Perhaps he would be just another agent working for SHIELD, lost in a sea of suits and credentials.

If the Avengers have made each other human, they have made Coulson _matter_.

 

A veritable tidal wave of water sloshes over him, breaking Phil from his errant thoughts. Tony is grinning broadly, his own face a little damp from the watery assault.

"Oh you picked a fight with the wrong guy this time, Stark," Clint drawls, having caught much of the attack himself. He launches himself at Tony, and Iron Man shouts surrender even as the water closes over his head.

Bruce, Natasha and Steve extricate themselves from the warfare. Thor, however, dives straight into battle, with the joy of a puppy.

Natasha lifts herself out next to Coulson, and sits with her feet in the water. She looks her companion up and down, then lets only the slightest of smiles creep onto her face. "What a coincidence, Stark having that pair in your exact size. They're almost identical to yours."

"Not quite, mine have a different band around the wa-" he stops abruptly, realising what he's done. "Very good."

"Your secret is safe with me."

"Oh god, help, I'm being attacked by a naked thunder god!" Tony shouts, managing to surface for only a second before he's buffeted by a wave of water that Thor creates with one mighty sweep. Clint slips and goes under, then comes up spluttering and laughing.

"You can laugh, Cupid, I'll get you for it."

A small crackle of electricity spreads through the pool, raising the hairs on their arms. Tony frowns. "Hey, no fair, no god powers!"

Thor just beams.

Bruce is talking animatedly with Steve about a new prototype drug he has been working on. And the extensive wonder of the Tower's R&D department, which is even more than its reputation.

The three oversized children are play battling. Phil and Natasha are watching with amused expressions.

Yeah. It's a family. A haphazard, duct-taped, bizarre as all hell, family. And they wouldn't change it for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Natasha : http://www.agentprovocateur.com/images/dynamic/i/350x444/5a6e7847.jpg  
> http://www.agentprovocateur.com/beach/view-all/info/shelby-swimsuit~black
> 
> Steve : http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7Vu0WdrWjXY/RfwbzE7NZwI/AAAAAAAADY4/IQXrGFrRktI/s1600-h/img277.jpg


End file.
